Medical savings accounts: opportunities for cost savings?

Interest in medical savings accounts (MSAs) as a potential tool to reduce healthcare costs has been widespread. A small number of countries have either implemented or run pilot programs of MSAs, and vigorous policy debates have taken place in several other countries about the potential merits of introducing MSAs as a method of paying for health care. In this paper we develop a model to assess the cost saving potential of MSAs in a publicly funded healthcare system. We assume that the public healthcare payer may choose between reimbursing healthcare expenditures through an MSA or through a form of third‐party payer insurance. We use the model to identify the conditions under which MSAs may reduce costs. We illustrate using data on healthcare expenditures from Canada.     

Stiff gelatin hydrogels can be photo-chemically synthesized from low viscous gelatin solutions using molecularly functionalized gelatin with a high degree of methacrylation

Gelatin is a very promising matrix material for in vitro cell culture and tissue engineering, e.g. due to its native RGD content. For the generation of medical soft tissue implants chemical modification of gelatin improves the mechanical properties of gelatin hydrogels and the viscous behavior of gelatin solutions for liquid handling. We present a systematic study on the influence of high degrees of methacrylation on the properties of gelatin solutions and photo-chemically crosslinked hydrogels. Changes from shear thinning to shear thickening behavior of gelatin solutions were observed depending on mass fraction and degree of methacrylation. Degrees of swelling of crosslinked hydrogels ranged from 194 to 770?% and storage moduli G′ from 368 to 5?kPa, comparable to various natural tissues including several types of cartilage. Crosslinked gels proofed to be cytocompatible according to extract testings based on DIN ISO 10933-5 and in contact with porcine chondrocytes.     

Linked multicontinuum and crack tensor approach for modeling of coupled geomechanics, fluid flow and transport in fractured rock

In this paper, we present a linked multicontinuum and crack tensor approach for modeling of coupled geomechanics, fluid flow, and solute transport in fractured rock. We used the crack tensor approach to calculate effective block-scale properties, including anisotropic permeability and elastic tensors, as well as multicontinuum properties relevant to fracture-matrix interactions and matrix diffusion. In the modeling, we considered stress dependent properties, through stress-induced changes in fracture apertures, to update permeability and elastic tensors. We evaluated the effectiveness and accuracy of our multicon-tinuum approach by comparing our modeling results with that of three independent discrete fracture network (DFN) models. In two of the three alternative DFN models, solute transport was simulated by particle tracking, an approach very different from the standard solute transport used in our multicon-tinuum modeling. We compared the results for flow and solute transport through a 20 m × 20 m model domain of fractured rock, including detailed comparison of total flow rate, its distribution, and solute breakthrough curves. In our modeling, we divided the 20 m × 20 m model domain into regular blocks, or continuum elements. We selected a model discretization of 40 × 40 elements (having a side length of 0.5 m) that resulted in a fluid-flow rate equivalent to that of the DFN models. Our simulation results were in reasonably good agreement with the alternative DFN models, for both advective dominated transport (under high hydraulic gradient) and matrix-diffusion retarded transport (under low hydraulic gradient). However, we found pronounced numerical dispersion when using larger grid blocks, a problem that could be remediated by the use of a finer numerical grid resolution, while maintaining a larger grid for evaluation of equivalent properties, i.e. a property grid overlapping the numerical grid. Finally, we encountered some difficulties in using our approach when element sizes were so small that only one or a few fractures intersect an element-this is an area of possible improvement that will be pursued in future research.     

Emotions and Planning

Planning analysts taught to separate cognitive and emotional qualities of judgment tend to study cognitive rather than emotional relationships. Psychological research on planning emphasizes the cognitive over the emotional, while social psychological research studies the effects of cognitive emotional interaction on planning judgment. This article argues that planning analysts might combine cognitive and emotional ideas about planning using research insights from the work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and the conceptual insights from the work of philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Two brief planning episodes illustrate the relevance of such integration for studying and understanding the kind of planning judgments practitioners make in their everyday practice.     

Thermodynamics of polymer solutions and blends

To describe the thermodynamic behavior of binary and larger polymer blends, the Hoch-Arpshofen model is used to describe highly asymmetric phase diagrams, and asymmetric enthalpies of mixing, where the miscibility gap and the extremum of the enthalpy of mixing leans toward one of the components. The Gibbs energy of mixing of polymer blends is described as where z can be mole fraction, volume fraction, or weight fraction. The Hoch-Arpshofen model contains an interaction parameter W = A + B*T independent of composition and an integer number n (2, 3, 4, …), which defines the asymmetricity of the binary phase diagram and of the Gibbs energy of mixing curve. In a binary system n defines the composition where the Gibbs energy of mixing is maximum or minimum or the composition is where the temperature of a miscibility gap is maximum or minimum. In a binary system A-B the maximum effect occurs at A_n–1B. The disorder reaction in polymers is treated as a transformation temperature, and defines T₀, the temperature where the ordered and disordered material is equal.     

Modeling and animation of facial expressions based on B-Splines

This paper describes a technique for the automatic adaptation of a canonical facial model to data obtained by a 3D laser scanner. The facial model is a B-spline surface with 13×16 control points. We introduce a technique by which this canonical model is fit to the scanned data and that takes into consideration the requirements for the animation of facial expressions. The animation of facial expressions is based on the facial action coding system (FACS). Using B-splines in combination with FACS, we automatically create the impression of a moving skin. To increase the realism of the animation we map textural information onto the B-spline surface.     

Über die Korrosion feuerfester keramischer Werkstoffe im Plasma von Verbrennungsgasen

The corrosion of refractory ceramic materials in the plasma of combustion gases The paper describes the testing of the corrosion resistance of refractory ceramics based on Al₂O₂, MgO and ZrO₂, as well as of phosphate cements, in flowing ionized gases as are present in the cornbustion products of conventional combustibles. A qualitative interpretation of the corrosion phenomena has been obtained experimentally using known test conditions and available thermodynamic and chechemical data.     

Thermodynamics of titanium alloys: I. Development of a triple Knudsen cell and its use to study the activity of copper in the Ti−Cu system

A new experimental technique for the determination of thermodynamic activity of alloys has been developed utilizing a triple Knudsen cell with a pure enriched natural isotope as the standard reference state. The alloy for which activity is to be determined is placed in one of the two effusion chambers of the triple cell and the pure isotopic standard in the other. The molecular beams from each chamber effuse into a third upper chamber and through a collimating hole into the ion source of a Bendix time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Since the recorded intensities are proportional to the vapor pressures within the chambers, a simple calculation based upon their ratio gives a direct determination of the activity of the solute in the alloy. The accuracy of the triple cell technique for the experimental determination of activities was checked by the measurement of the copper activity in a Ni?Cu alloy containing 30.6 wt pct Cu. A value ofRT γ_Cu=1778±142 cal per g-atom at 1450°K was obtained, which is in excellent agreement with values in the literature. The activity of copper in the bcc β phase when then determined for four Ti?Cu alloys (X _Cu=0.033 to 0.085), using pure enriched Cu⁶⁵ as the standard reference state. The composition range investigated was limited to alloys belowX _Cu=0.10, the maximum solubility within the experimental temperature range between 1423° and 1573°K, the activity of copper in the bcc β phase can be expressed using pure liquid copper as the standard state by the following equation:RT Ina _Cu=RT InX _Cu+X _Ti ² (1.92±0.30) in kcal per g-atom. The activity of titanium is given byRT Ina _Ti=RT InX _Ti+X _Cu ² (1.92±0.30) in kcal per g-atom.